Ever notice those racks of yellow bikes at various places around Brisbane. Those are the CityCycles. Now the scheme is a reasonably good idea, and I love the lessened environmental impact that comes from bike riding, but Brisbane just does not seem to have warmed to CityCycles the way people hoped. Maybe it is because it has been raining too much recently, or the fact that picking up a CityCycle is not as easy as it seems. First thing to know is that you need to have a subscription. You can get annual, three month, weekly or day subscriptions which you can get online. You then have to log on at the CityCycle terminal and select a bike which then gets unlocked so you can ride it. You then have to return the bike to a terminal (which can be any one in Brisbane). So unfortunately you sort of have to do your research, subscribe, find out where all the terminals are and buy a helmet before CityCycle is any use. Not all that convenient in the end. The biggest issue, however, is that by law you need to wear a helmet. You can pay extra to hire one or buy your own. But that is just another thing to worry about when it comes to CityCycle. In the end it is all a bit too much of a hassle for me to bother and I end up just taking the bus or train instead with the bonus extra of not getting sweaty. read more

Brisbane City Cycle - Bike Rentals Near Me - Fortitude Valley, QLD

Ah Brisbane. When you steal other cities awesome ideas, you should probably make sure they'll work here. This is a great idea - in flat, temperate cities where you don't have to wear helmets. Unfortunately the fat cats in City Hall seemed to have forgotten that when they dropped bucket loads of cash on this scheme. It was no doubt an excuse for an expensive 'study trip' to Paris or Amsterdam, but what it has resulted in is less street parking and less money in the budget to support just over 1,000 users. Oh and it's a great source of news fodder for lazy journo's looking for a ready made beat up story. I'd like to see some of the politicians jump on a bike on a humid Brisbane day, don a potentially lice ridden public helmet and puff and sweat their way up hill and down dale to get to work. HA. I'm pretty sure they'd rather catch public transport (and that aint never going to happen). read more

Bicycle riding is good in theory. But flat tyres, maintenance, finding bike racks... suck. City-cycle solves all that. I like the convenience. Pick up a bike, ride to where you want, leave it in the rack, walk away and completely utterly forget about the bike. No worries about theft. No worries about damage. No worries about rain. Catch a taxi home, walk home, pick up a bike from a different rack - all good. The bikes are heavy clunkers with low gears. That's fine - I want transport and exercise, not thrills and spills. The bikes all have baskets, so you can carry your handbag / daypack / shopping. Many of the bikes have helmets. So you can carry your own (they're not heavy) or use a public one. If you want to ride a bike for fun and excitement, forget about city cycles. If you want public transport without timetables then city cycles are a good string in your bow. The cost? About $70 a year, no services, no replacing parts, no new tyres, no insurance. Probably less than the total cost of a mid-range bike. read more

We drove up from the Gold Coast looking forward to a day of cycling around Brisbane with the family (2 adults and 2 children). I expected to just be able to swipe a credit card and hire 4 bikes, but no I had to sign up online. Fortunately I had a smart phone with internet access. 15 minutes later I had a temporary account, entered the details, and unlocked a bike. I then went to rent the next bike. No! You can only have one bike per account! I then spent the next half hour, while my daughter rode around in circles on our hired bike, trying to convince myself this couldn't be the case. I could for $37 attach it my GoCard. Not a solution. I tried to call the 1300 number. It wasn't available during weekends. So we had no choice but to return it. Of course now the bike rack was full, so three of us walked, while my daughter rode until we found the next bike rack. Which was full. It took us over an HOUR walking to find a bike rack to return the bike. This is possibly the worst implementation of hiring I have ever seen. A terrible website, a useless app, non existent customer service, and no convenient way to pay. I was tempted at one point to chuck the bike in the river. AWFUL. read more

DO NOT USE!! Rented bike for an hour, replaced in terminal correctly. 4 days later I received a call to say that I had 'abandoned' the bike and that they had to charge me $165 to find the bike. I have no idea how this happened, however after explaining the situation and them confirming the 2 other people I rode with had returned the bikes at the same terminal that I informed them - I was still bluntly told bad luck and the charge was debited from my credit card. POOR FORM. Use at your own risk! read more